The list omits Omar Vizquel’s latest accomplishment as a pelotero: On Tuesday, the Toronto Blue Jays’ reserve infielder turned 45 and became just the fourth position player in history to play for a major-league team at that age.

“I feel grateful and proud that I’m still on a major-league team,” he said as he pulled on his uniform in the visitors’ clubhouse in Baltimore. “It’s not easy to compete with these guys that are the best in the world. So I guess that I’m still one of those. It makes me feel very good.”

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But so do most of those other pursuits on his Twitter list. He is an “addicted” painter, has loved to dance since he was 10 and plays Cuban drums called timbales. He has a collection of personal poetry, but has not written a poem in a while. When the muse strikes, he writes prose — in Spanish and English — on his website.

As for calf-throwing, that was a one-time endeavour in his native Venezuela. Once was enough, he said.

“You chase a bull and grab it by the tail and knock him down,” he said with a grin. “I did that once, and that’s it. I put it there [on Twitter] as a joke. I was 29 or 30 when I did it. I did it once and that was all I needed. I couldn’t really do it that well. But it was fun to do with some of my buddies.”

Over a 24-season career, Vizquel is best known as the of the most accomplished defensive shortstops in history. The last time he played regularly was in 2007, when he was 40. Since then, he has hung on as a backup, not for the money — he is making US$750,000 this year — but for love.

He has harboured artistic interests from childhood. Outside of baseball, painting is his biggest passion. As in his other pastimes, he is self-taught.

“One day I was walking through some galleries and saw some paintings,” he said. “I thought I could do that. So I went to a store and bought some canvas and some acrylics and starting painting. It grabbed me. I started getting addicted to it.”

He says he specializes in “bodies and shapes.” Galleries in San Francisco and Cleveland have displayed his work.

He developed a love of dancing as a child in Venezuela. His specialities are salsa and merengue. “But I can dance just about everything,” he adds.

Vizquel would not be satisfied without diversity in his life, but his pastimes have never held a candle to baseball, he said.

“Nothing even compares. Even though I like doing those things, whenever they say let’s go play baseball, I just grab my glove and forget about everything else,” he said.

According to Rob Neyer of SBNation.com, only Pete Rose, Julio Franco, Carlton Fisk and someone named Grover Hartley (in 1934) were still active position players at 45. Vizquel deeply appreciates the opportunity to join that club.

“It’s very special,” he said. “I don’t think you can see too many 45-year-olds playing the infield any more. Players these days, I don’t know if it’s the fact that they make so much money that you don’t really push yourself to the limits, or your body doesn’t really stand or put up with all the work that you’ve got to do.”

He says he is frustrated that he rarely gets to play. But he understands that his time on the bench will benefit him when he quits playing — likely at the end of this season, he says — and moves on to coaching or managing.

“It teaches you a little bit what the other players go through when they’re not everyday players,” he said. “You start appreciating more things, and every opportunity they give you to play. I’m still happy.”

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